


Roots

by just-a-pleb-les (Phoenix314)



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst, Danvers Sisters, Family, Grief, Minor Character Death, No Romance, One Shot, sister bonding, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-06
Updated: 2017-07-06
Packaged: 2018-11-28 08:10:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11413770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phoenix314/pseuds/just-a-pleb-les
Summary: Looking back on it, Alex feels ashamed at how long it took for her to care about and understand Kara; to see her as a person. Not a human, though. It was easy to see her as an alien, despite their similar appearance, when she accidentally ripped the door off of the Danvers’ 2000 Honda Civic for the third time in as many months. However, it took Alex a year to truly realize that underneath her bulletproof skin and behind her flaming eyes, Kara felt emotions as strong as any human—stronger, perhaps—and that maybe they had more in common than she had originally thought.





	Roots

**Author's Note:**

> A little sister bonding fic during the summer hiatus : )
> 
> This is not a Kalex story...for so many gross reasons, no.
> 
> Written from Alex's POV.

Roots

 

Looking back on it, Alex feels ashamed at how long it took for her to care about and understand Kara; to see her as a person. Not a human, though. It was easy to see her as an alien, despite their similar appearance, when she accidentally ripped the door off of the Danvers’ 2000 Honda Civic for the third time in as many months. However, it took Alex a year to truly realize that underneath her bulletproof skin and behind her flaming eyes, Kara felt emotions as strong as any human—stronger, perhaps—and that maybe they had more in common than she had originally thought.

For twelve months, Alex saw the alien she suddenly had to share a bathroom with as just that; something foreign and strange, but also threatening. Her home had become a scene of an alien invasion and she seemed to be the only one bothered by it. The thirteen year old went from being the golden child of the Danvers family to an unpaid babysitter overnight.

“You must watch over her better, Alex.”

“You were supposed to make sure she doesn’t lose control, Alex.”

“Where were you? Kara depends on you to be there for her, Alex.”

Before her new foster sister came along, Alex didn’t have to look after anyone; she didn’t have to take care of anyone. Even though as an adult Alex can’t imagine what her life would have been like without her sister, when she was a child she was never envious of her peers who had siblings. It didn’t seem so great when Julie Robinson had to get a bowl cut when her little brother put his gum in her hair because he thought it would be funny. It sounded terrible whenever Alana Black complained about how her older sister was constantly shoving her around and making fun of her when their parents weren’t around.

To Alex, becoming a big sister was something akin to a nightmare. Why should she have to watch over this stranger? It wasn’t Alex’s fault that Superman—whom Alex had only met a handful of times—couldn’t take care of his weird cousin. His cousin who stared at birds with awe; who accidentally set her pillow on fire on a weekly basis; who, when startled, literally jumps ten feet in the air. However, Alex has never known to be anything but a good daughter. So, for her parents, Alex did as she was told, but it wasn’t a secret that she wasn’t happy about it.

The teenager was never outright horrible or mean to the younger girl, but she wasn’t warm or welcoming either. She’d roll her eyes when her parents weren’t looking, did nothing to hide the expressions of disdain or annoyance whenever Kara said something ignorant about Earth or some strange comment about Krypton. Alex knew Kara saw these actions and expressions, but Alex couldn’t bring herself to care. Years later, Kara, with her infinite capacity of compassion, would try to convince her older sister that she was only a thirteen year old girl whose entire life was turned upside in an instant. However, when Alex thought about it, she was wracked with guilt that she was capable of treating someone who endured a tragedy so profound that Alex would never fully understand it—who took that tragedy and used it as fuel to be a force of good and hope in the world—with such contempt.

Alex knows she’ll never truly be able to grasp the anguish Kara feels whenever she thinks about what happened to her home world. However, it was one year after first meeting the younger girl that Alex was able to feel a bit of empathy for the alien. She was fourteen when the Danvers received news about what happened to Jeremiah, but Alex doesn’t remember much of that day.

She can recall with amazing clarity random words and sounds: her mother’s agonizing cry as she collapsed when the men with black suits and stiff backs spoke and the sound of Kara’s sudden intake of air, but absolute silence from her otherwise. Everything else was blurry, as if the world was slowing down and moving too fast at the same time. The occasional words broke through the static in her brain.

“His plane crashed.”

“No survivors.”

“We’re sorry.”

_Sorry_. _Sorry_. _Sorry_. Alex wasn’t aware she could hate a word with such passion before. It took days for her to learn how to tune out the repetitive expression. The word had lost all meaning to her.

It was two days after the funeral when Alex cried for the first time. She had hardly spoken a word to anyone, ignored the worried looks from her mother, the apologies of strangers, and didn’t return any sympathetic gestures from family or friends. Kara had been almost as silent as Alex, but that wasn’t unusual for the alien. She had learned to stay quiet around Alex, not wanting to annoy the older girl with her talk of distant galaxies and ignorant questions. Kara only spoke with Eliza, trying to help her foster mom in any way she could. She took over Alex’s chores for the time being, helped Eliza pick out pictures and videos for the funeral, and cooked whenever she could (that one she was still having trouble with, but seemed to enjoy doing).

During this time, Alex was on autopilot. She hardly reacted to anything around her, could barely remember the funeral, and sat at a table in a corner at the wake. She finally broke down late in the night a few days after they had laid Jeremiah to rest. She couldn’t sleep, which was the first time since she had learned about her father’s death that she was unable to rest. She was anxious and feelings she couldn’t process were coursing through her.

The young teenager absentmindedly dragged her hand along her bookshelf, automatically stopped on her journal. She hadn’t written in it for a week. Alex pulled it off the shelf and opened it, but paused when something fell out of it. After bending down to pick up what was in her journal, Alex’s lungs stopped working. She was holding concert tickets. Tickets Jeremiah had bought her just a few months ago for her birthday to see Britney Spears. While her music taste was beginning to lean towards the rock genre, Alex couldn’t let go of her obsession with Britney Spears.

Alex stared at the tickets she had completely forgotten about her father’s birthday gift he bought her in July: three tickets to see Britney Spears in National City—one for her, a friend, and him to accompany them. She remembers him winking at her as he promised that his ticket was a few rows up from hers so that her and her friend could hang out without the old man. Alex was ecstatic that she was going to see one of her favorite artists live. He trusted her with the tickets, knowing she’d be constantly ensuring their safety until the day arrived in October.

The fourteen year old wasn’t sure how long she stared at the tickets, but it soon became blurry as Alex felt tears well up. One fell, then another, and soon a torrent tears coated her cheeks as she slipped down to the floor. Breathing became difficult and her mind spun so much she was sure she was going to be sick.

She was unaware of how much time had passed since she began to break down, but she became alert when she felt someone touch her shoulder.

“Alex?” came a worried and scared voice of her newly adopted sister. Alex squeezed her eyes shut, wishing the alien gone. It wasn’t fair. Why was she here? Why was this stranger in her home while her father would never step foot inside the door again? The older girl wanted to yell at the Kryptonian, to demand that she leave her alone; to leave them for good, but Alex couldn’t force the words from her mouth.

Instead, she murmured, “he’s gone. He’s gone.”

Kara had always been careful not to hold people without them initiating contact, fearful of accidentally harming them with her superhuman strength. It took months before she returned a hug from Eliza or Jeremiah, the only people whom she allowed to touch her in such a way, and she had never once hugged Alex. Her foster sister never wanted her to and Kara had always respected that decision.

So when Alex felt the younger girl, as slowly and as carefully as possible, wrap her arms around the sobbing teenager, she immediately tensed up. Kara hesitated and then gently embraced Alex, collecting the older girl in her powerful arms. Alex herself was surprised that she didn’t attempt to shove the alien away from her, but instead she sank into her and sobbed into Kara’s impossibly strong shoulders. Kara began to gently rock them back and forth, humming a song that Alex was unfamiliar with, but it comforted her nonetheless. Kara did not give empty platitudes or hollow apologies, nor did she offer promises that everything would be okay. She simply held her adopted sister, offering comfort, strength, and understanding without speaking a word.

The siblings remained unaware of how much time had passed, but eventually Alex lifted her head from the soaked pajama shirt Kara wore and attempted to collect herself as much as she could. Kara took the hint and pulled her arms back from around Alex, but remained close to the older girl.

“What were you humming?” Alex whispered, unable to look the younger girl in the eyes. She felt too vulnerable. _Fragile_. _Broken_. She hated that this alien saw her at the lowest point she’s ever felt in her young life, but she couldn’t ignore the fact that she felt the smallest bit better after the experience.

“It’s a lullaby from Krypton. My mom would always sing it to me whenever I was sick or sad,” the thirteen year old replied.

Alex found herself glancing up into eyes that were such an otherworldly shade of blue that it often made Alex wonder why everyone didn’t realize that Kara was not human with one glance into her irises. It was hearing those words and looking into Kara’s eyes that Alex realized, like a punch to the gut, that Kara knew exactly how she felt. She _knew_. One day her parents had been alive, the next they were gone. Both of them. Alex still can’t fully process that she’ll never see her father again, but to imagine losing her mother as well was unthinkable. It was in this moment, as she stared into her adopted sister’s eyes and truly saw the pain, agony, and loss in them, that Alex felt as if her heart was beating for the first time in days. A thread—a tenuous one—now connected them.

 

* * *

 

Eliza never mentioned the fact that Alex’s attitude towards Kara had changed overnight. The morning after Alex had broken down, a package arrived while they were all eating breakfast. While Kara had come a long ways in controlling her abilities, whenever she was frightened or exhausted, she would occasionally slip up. After comforting her sister, Kara stayed with her the rest of the night and only slept a few hours because every time Alex moved Kara readied herself to comfort the older girl again. So when the doorbell rang over breakfast, the exhausted alien jumped in fright, breaking the glass of orange juice she had been holding. The liquid splashed all over the table with most of it ending up in Kara’s cereal that was only half eaten. 

Before Eliza could move or even utter a word, Alex immediately jumped up and grabbed some paper towel to begin cleaning up. Kara uttered a slew of apologies to her sister, but Alex stopped her with a squeeze of the blonde’s shoulder and a small smile. Eliza’s eyebrows rose in surprise since she had never once seen Alex initiate contact with her adopted sister. The woman stared at her biological daughter as she, without instruction or protest, cleared Kara’s ruined cereal, made her a new bowl of Marshmallow Mateys, and cleaned up the orange juice that had splattered onto the table. Kara was beaming up at the older girl, realizing this was the first time she had ever seen Alex help her without rolling her brown eyes or a sneer on her lips.

Alex, as she set down the cereal bowl in front of Kara, glanced at the alien and blinked at the grin she had spread across her face. Alex had never seen Kara look at her that way before—as if she were the kindest, greatest person she’d ever seen. A look of happiness and gratitude so genuine, Alex could not help but return it with a small smile. The Kryptonian went back to eating, but Alex was busy thinking as she cleaned up the orange juice. Kara’s accident, for the first time since meeting her, had not bothered her. Before, she would have ground her teeth together in annoyance as she was being told to clean up after Kara again. This morning, however, she didn’t feel an ounce of irritation. She patiently helped and cleaned up after her new sister, even going so far as to voluntarily touching her for the first time since Kara’s arrival. Truly, though, it was the look Kara gave her for helping that Alex kept seeing over and over. No one had ever looked at her like that before. Not her parents, her teachers, or her friends. It was as if Alex had hung the moon in the sky; a look coming from someone that could probably pick up the moon.

Pride welled up inside Alex. She had been so terrible to Kara—never once doing anything more than the bare minimum of what was required of her to welcome this alien girl into their home. She hadn’t given her an encouraging word unless it was laced with sarcasm, complained about Kara’s inability to adapt to Earth or control her power within earshot of the younger girl, and did not help make her feel comfortable and secure in school. But after one night of bonding over shared loss and replacing a bowl of cereal, Kara was suddenly looking at her with open appreciation and affection, like she was the most amazing big sister in the galaxy.

Alex had always tried to be perfect at whatever she set out to accomplish. She wanted to be the best daughter to her parents, number one student in her class, first place in any sport or activity she participated in, but never once had she wished to be the greatest sister to the weird girl she shared a bathroom with.

_Maybe that should change_ Alex mused as Kara went back to eating.

Before she realized what she was doing, the oldest Danvers was speaking to the alien. “Kara, do you want to come with me to see Britney Spears?”

Absolute silence descended over the breakfast table as the two other Danvers women were stunned at the words that had come from Alex’s mouth.

Kara’s eyes comically widened as she processed the question. “Me?”

Her voice was so quiet and insecure, Alex felt her heart constrict. Of course Kara was so taken aback by her invitation. Alex had never once voluntarily invited her anywhere. In fact, she more often than not argued with her parents to let her leave her weird sister behind.

_“Just this one time, dad. I just want a normal night with my normal friends!”_

“Yes,” Alex said as she cleared her throat, trying to rid it of the emotion that was attempting to force its way out. “I found the tickets last night and realized I hadn’t decided who I wanted to come with me. Do you like Britney Spears?”

Kara nodded enthusiastically, the excitement practically making the younger girl vibrate in her chair. Alex could have sworn she saw her levitate an inch.

  
Eliza tried to keep herself from tearing up at what she was witnessing, however she knew she had to interject. “Alex, as kind as that offer is, maybe it’s not such a good idea. Even with her glasses, Kara’s hearing might not be ready for something as noisy and overwhelming as a concert. 

Alex saw as disappointment and sadness clouded over blue eyes and she knew she had to get Kara to that concert, no matter what.

She met her mother’s eyes, a steely resolve in her own brown irises. “I can help her with learning to control it. We still have a month. Maybe we could find a pair of really good earplugs to help while we’re there?”

Even if Eliza wanted to say no, she could hardly deny Kara’s pleading look. She certainly didn’t want to be the one to stand in the way of the two girls becoming closer. She agreed to find earplugs and Alex promised Kara that they could start working on controlling her super-hearing as soon as they were finished with breakfast.

* * *

One month later, Kara, in complete control of her hearing abilities, was belting out the lyrics to “You Drive Me Crazy” alongside Alex in National City and Eliza a few rows away trying to hold her tears back.

_You’d be so proud, Jeremiah_ she thought as she saw her two daughters dance together.

Later that night, Alex was lying in bed, staring at her ceiling. She was still feeling the high of having such a fun time at the concert that her body refused to sleep, despite the late hour. Even though she was the one who invited Kara, Alex was surprised just how much she enjoyed the company of the alien.

Her musing was broken by the sound of someone climbing on the roof. Alex had stopped being alarmed by the noise months ago as Kara had made it a habit to fly to the top of the roof at least once a week. This time, however, Alex felt the need to join her for the first time.

She pulled on a sweatshirt and warm, fuzzy socks before clambering out of her window. “Kara?”

The Kryptonian’s head popped out from the top level of the roof. “Alex? What are you doing up here?”

“I heard you and wanted to find out what you were doing all these nights you spend up here. Can you grab me?”

Kara didn’t hesitate as gently grabbed Alex and flew them to the topmost part of the house. The alien lay back against the tiles and placed her hands behind her head. “I like to come up here sometimes and look at the stars. My vision allows me to use my eyes like a telescope to see all the constellations I’m not used to seeing. They’re very beautiful.”

Alex joined her sister and looked at the stars that she had grown up seeing her whole life.

“Which one is your favorite?” the brunette asked.

Kara pointed towards a collection of stars that Alex recognized, but couldn’t remember the name of. “Orion. I looked up the myth behind it and it reminded me of a story that was told on Krypton that my father would recite to me during the Festival of the Silver Leaves. The hero in the story was a hunter, just like Orion was.”

The alien had begun to slowly open up to Alex about Krypton after months of never saying a word about her birth planet to her sister. But the time they spent working on controlling Kara’s powers gave the younger girl courage to occasionally mention her home. Rather than feel the annoyance or disinterest she usually felt, Alex found herself continuing the occasional conversations.

This was the first time, however, that Kara had brought up one of her parents and Alex realized she was truly curious about them. “What was he like?”

Kara glanced at Alex, confused. “The hunter? Or Orion?”

“Your dad. You know about...my dad,” Alex said, a slight hitch in her voice at the thought of Jeremiah. “But what was yours like?”

The Kryptonian was silent for several moments. Alex almost wanted to take back her question, knowing just how difficult it was to talk about a loved one who was no longer alive. She opened her mouth to say so when Kara began speaking.

“He was a terrible cook.”

Alex laughed, taken aback by the seemingly random anecdote. “Really?”

Her sister smiled at the stars, blue eyes two thousand lightyears away as she recalled her memories of Krypton. “Yeah, truly terrible. Whenever it was his turn to cook, my mom would always seem to have something come up at work and be forced to miss it. It took me a few years to realize that she was trying to avoid lying to him about how good the meal was. It was one of the things we agreed that we were on our own for when it came to avoiding eating whatever he ended up burning or undercooking.”

For the first time since she had landed on Earth, Kara began speaking quickly in what would become classic Kara rambling. Alex simply let her go, knowing she had a whole year to make up for ignoring her sister.

A few minutes into a story about how Zor-el had almost accidentally killed his brother, Clark’s father, after mixing up what was a chemical and what was sauce for his lunch, that Alex began shivering from the cool night air.

Her adopted sister didn’t even pause while speaking as she scooted over and gently rested her head on Alex’s shoulder. The older Danvers girl also didn’t hesitate as she wrapped an arm around Kara, pulling the constantly warm girl in closer.

As she listened to the younger girl go on and on about Krypton and her family, Alex felt a sense of peace that she hadn’t had since before her father’s death fill her. No one could ever replace her dad. She knew that. And Alex knew that she would always miss him. And yet, Alex could hear how much Kara had loved her birth family and spoke almost as if they were still alive for her.

_Maybe_ Alex thought as she glanced at Kara while she continued to ramble. _Maybe Kara and I can keep dad alive through us and our memories of him._

As she gazed up at the stars, Alex pulled Kara in a little tighter, silently promising to do better for her.

The two of them couldn’t have been more different: a red sun versus a yellow one; one planet unified and the other still discovering itself; different constellations littered their night skies growing up. But through space and time, light-years and galaxies, a shared sense of profound grief and sorrow and the need for comfort and understanding would become the roots of a bond between two sisters that nothing on Earth or beyond could ever break.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Alex would have totally been obsessed with Britney Spears..."for some reason" ; )
> 
> Thanks, loves! Leave a kudos/comment if you liked it : )
> 
> Hit me up on Tumblr: [the-gayest-pathfinder](http://the-gayest-pathfinder.tumblr.com/)
> 
> This was unbeta'd. All mistakes are mine.


End file.
